Trump Puts Intelligence Chief Jay Clayton in Charge of AI Task Force
The Super Intelligence Force has 120 days to assess AI risks and opportunities as the administration seeks to preserve US leadership without imposing heavy regulation.
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US President Donald Trump has put US intelligence chief Jay Clayton in charge of a new federal task force that will examine the risks and economic opportunities created by artificial intelligence while considering what role the government should play in overseeing the technology.
The group will engage with AI companies, consumers, public-interest and religious groups, and critical-infrastructure providers as it considers both the benefits of increasingly capable AI systems and the risks they may pose.
Trump announced the Super Intelligence Force on Sunday, October 4, saying it would coordinate work across the federal government to ensure the US remains ahead in AI. Trump has recently pushed to call artificial intelligence “super intelligence.”
Clayton told The Wall Street Journal that the task force had 120 days to assess AI’s risks and opportunities and recommend what responsibilities the federal government should assume.
“The president asked that a group be put together that was going to ensure exactly what he said … that we stay the leaders in superintelligence, and that the interests of the American people are put first,” Clayton said.
The task force’s charter calls for plans to address AI-enabled threats while “preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition,” according to the Journal.
It will also examine whether existing government authorities are sufficient to respond to incidents involving increasingly capable AI systems.
Clayton framed US leadership itself as a security issue.
“The risk of not being first is high,” he said. “Not being first increases the identified, and unidentified, risks, particularly from our adversaries. Being first will better enable us to address those risks on behalf of the American people.”
Alongside Clayton, Trump named Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor as leaders of the task force. It will report to Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The Journal reported that Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are also among the broader group involved in the effort.
Clayton, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman and longtime Wall Street lawyer, became director of national intelligence earlier this year.
His new role effectively places him at the center of the administration’s AI policy effort, though AI czar is an informal description rather than a formal government title.
